- They say good things come to those who wait. And the good thing this night was French psy-trance DJ Absolum, otherwise known as Christof, founder of 3D Vision.
A delayed flight from the other side of the world meant Christof didn''t make it up onto the main decks at DCM, Sydney, until 6am, just when many were probably ready for a taxi ride home and a good day''s sleep. Quite a few had exhausted themselves, but the hardy were rewarded with a set that somehow blew the previous DJs - and all of them had put in fine, entertaining and extended performances to cater for the tardy Frenchman - out of the water.
Suddenly the long hours dancing - despite wanting to save energy for the main attraction - and acceptance of the pissy sound system in the main room was worth it. DCM closed two days after this event for major renovations. Let''s hope a new sound system was part of that reconstruction work. And let''s hope they get rid of those naff round wooden podiums littered about the dance floor. But hey, the sign of a good party is that the people put such annoyances behind them. And a good DJ can make a tinny home karaoke speaker sound like the bees knees. This night we had both ingredients. I''m not sure if it was DCM or organisers D-psyfa who were responsible for the lighting, lasers and projections in the main room, but it looked a treat, even if it didn''t sound it. The music was clear enough, but lacked oomph, unless you found just the right spot on the dance floor.
Christof somehow looked fresh after his long travels and started with a soft, smooth sound that slowly built for the next hour into what turned out to be intense psychedelic heaven for the determined doofers. For me, the first hour or so was the highlight. Then after another hour of a more intense, harder techno/trance sound, my mind and body had had enough.
My only criticism of Christof''s sound was that it was all quite clinical, precise, just like the computer programs that generated much of it. It was like a Hitchcock film: clever, intense, thrilling, but with each mystery fully explained by carefully placed clues. I just wished towards the end that a computer bug would jump into the system and take us somewhere unexpected. Perhaps, though, these thoughts were merely my brain reasoning with me at 8.30am that what I was doing did not compute. It was Saturday morning, time to walk the dog, read the paper, watch The Simpsons, not be in an Oxford St nightclub enjoying a full-on psychedelic experience.
Earlier Ritchie Jay played a bouncier, thumping set in the back room to a small but loyal bunch of followers, while Psyber closed out the room by spinning CDs in his 2-CD mixer. Nomsg had had the main room thumping when I arrived around 2am while Ozzy''s performance, in leading into Christof''s set, raised the beats level a touch and received widespread praise.
Maybe Ozzy, ironically, was the one who tired so many out. But Christof was certainly the one who polished everyone off.